On whom will you [rely to] enjoy yourselves: Since you have turned away from following Me, on whom will you rely to enjoy yourselves with good. Had you merited, you would then enjoy yourselves with the Lord, but now, on whom will you rely to enjoy yourselves?

against whom do you open your mouth wide: when you scorned and mocked His prophets.

5You who inflame yourselves among the terebinths, under every green tree, who slaughter the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks.

you placed your couch: The couch of your adultery to idolatry on the high mountains.

8And behind the door and the doorpost you have directed your thoughts, for while with Me, you uncovered [us] and went up, you widened your couch and made for yourself [a covenant] with them; you loved their couch, you chose a place.

And behind the door and the doorpost you have directed your thoughts: Since he compares her to an adulterous woman, for whom her paramours look and wait before the door of her house, while she, lying beside her husband, directs her heart and her thoughts to the door and the doorpost, how she will open the door and come out to them.

for while with Me, you uncovered [us] and went up: You were lying beside Me, and you removed the cover with which we were covered together, and you went up from beside Me.

you widened your couch: to accommodate many adulterers.

and made for yourself: a covenant with them.

you loved their couch: when you chose for yourself יָד, a place, to demonstrate to them your love.

And you brought a gift to the king with oil: Heb. וַתָּשֻׁרִי. Originally, I aggrandized you, and you would greet your king with all sorts of delights. וַתָּשֻׁרִי is an expression of an audience. Comp. (Num. 24:17) “I see him (אֲשׁוּרֶנוּ) but he is not near.” [Also] (I Sam. 9:7), “And there is no present (תְּשׁוּרָה) to bring,” [i.e.,] a gift for an audience.

and you sent your ambassadors: Your messenger afar to collect tribute from the heathen kings. ([Manuscripts and K’li Paz read:] the kings of the nations.)

and you humbled: the laws of the heathens (of the nations [Mss. and K’li Paz]) to the grave. Jonathan rendered it in this manner.

10With the length of your way you became wearied; you did not say, "Despair." The power of your hand you found; therefore, you were not stricken ill.

that you failed: Heb. תְּכַזֵּבִי, that you ceased to worship Me and you betrayed Me. Comp. (infra 58:11) “Whose water shall not fail (יְכַזְּבוּ).” Comp. also (Psalms 116:11) “Every man is a traitor (כֹּזֵב).” Falajjnc in O.F., to fail. Likewise, every expression of כָּזָב means one upon whom people rely, and he fails and betrays them.

Indeed, I am silent: I kept silent in the face of many transgressions that you transgressed against Me.

12I tell your righteousness and your deeds, and they shall not avail you.

When you cry out, let your collections save you: Let the collection of your idols and your graven images [and those who deny the Torah] that you collected, rise and save you when you cry out from your distress. Indeed, wind will carry all of them off, and they will not rise, neither will they be able to save.

14And he shall say, "Pave, pave, clear the way; remove the obstacles from the way of My people."

And he shall say, “Pave, pave”: So will the prophet say in My name to My people, “Pave, pave a paved highway, clear away the evil inclination from your ways.”

remove the obstacle: Remove the stones upon which your feet stumble; they are wicked thoughts.

15For so said the High and Exalted One, Who dwells to eternity, and His name is Holy, "With the lofty and the holy ones I dwell, and with the crushed and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the crushed.

For I will not contend forever: If I bring afflictions upon a person, My contention with him is not for a long time, neither is My anger forever.

when a spirit from before Me humbles itself: Heb. יַעֲטוֹף. When the spirit of man, which is from before Me, humbles itself, confesses and humbles itself because of its betrayal. Comp. (Lam. 2:19) “humbled (הָעֲטוּפִים) with hunger”, “when the small child and the suckling are humbled (בֵּעָטֵף).” And the souls which I made.

when a spirit from before Me: Heb. כִּי. This instance of the word כִּי is used as an expression of “when.” Comp. (infra 58:7) “When you see (כִּי תִרְאֶה) ” ; (Deut. 26:1) “When you come (כִּי תָבוֹא).” That is to say, when his spirit is humbled, and he is humbled, I terminate My quarrel and My anger from upon him.

17For the iniquity of his thievery I became wroth, and I smote him, I hid Myself and became wroth, for he went rebelliously in the way of his heart.

I became wroth: at the beginning and I smote him, always hiding My face from his distress and I was wroth for he went rebelliously in the way of his heart. Transpose the verse and explain it thus: For the iniquity of his thievery and the fact that he went rebelliously in the way of his heart, I became wroth and smote him.

18I saw his ways and I will heal him, and I will lead him and requite with consolations him and his mourners.

[I] create the speech of the lips: I create for him a new manner of speech. In contrast to the trouble that befell him, and everyone was degrading him, they will call, “Peace, peace.”

to the far and to the near: Both are equal; he who aged and was accustomed to My Torah and My worship from his youth, and he who drew near now, just recently to repent of his evil way. Said the Lord, “I will heal him of his malady and of his sins.”

20But the wicked are like the turbulent sea, for it cannot rest, and its waters cast up mud and dirt.

like the turbulent sea: This seaits waves raise themselves high and strive to go out of the boundary of sand that I made as a boundary for the sea, and when it reaches there, against its will it breaks. The next wave sees all this, yet does not turn back. Similarly, the wicked man sees his friend being punished for his wickedness; yet he does not turn back. Also, just as the sea has its mud and its offensive matter on its mouth, [i.e., on its surface,] so do the wicked have their offensive matter in their mouth; e.g., Pharaoh said, (Exodus 5: 2) “Who is the Lord?” Sennacherib said (supra 36:20), “Who are they among all the Gods of the lands…?” Nebuchadnezzar said, (supra 14:14) “I will liken myself to the Most High.”

like the turbulent sea: Like the sea, which is turbulent, that casts up all day mud and dirt.